Location: 12 Rue du President Franklin Roosevelt
Tel. +33 326 47 84 19
The Reddition Museum is a history museum founded by the city of
Reims in 1985 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the
signing, on May 7, 1945 at 2:41 a.m., of the first part of the acts
of capitulation of the Nazi Germany (a second signing took place the
next day in Berlin) that ended World War II in the European theater.
It is located in part of the premises of the Franklin-Roosevelt
high school in Reims (Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France) where this
signature took place. The May 7, 1945 surrender room located in the
building has been classified as a historical monument since December
31, 1985.
In February 1945, Dwight David Eisenhower set up the Supreme
Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in the modern and
technical college on rue Jolicoeur (the current Franklin-Roosevelt high
school in Reims), near the Paris- Metz-Germany, a strategic axis if ever
there was one. After the suicide of Adolf Hitler, Admiral Dönitz sends
emissaries to prepare the signing of a separate act with the Allies on
the Western Front. Several round trips take place from May 5 to 7.
However, at the end of the agreements made between them, the Allies
accept only an unconditional and total surrender valid for the whole of
Europe.
On Monday, May 7, 1945, at 2:41 a.m., the surrender of
the German armed forces was signed. The German delegation is made up of
Generaloberst Alfred Jodl, Chief of the German General Staff and Deputy
Marshal Keitel, Commander-in-Chief of the German Forces, his
aide-de-camp Major (Commander) Wilhelm Oxenius, and Admiral von
Friedeburg, chief of the German military navy. The four-language
document is signed by General Walter B. Smith, General Eisenhower's
Chief of Staff, representing SHAEF, and other officers representing
Allied forces.
There is no act written in French, and the English
text is the only authoritative one.
Stalin immediately asks for a new signature: having made Berlin
"fall", he intends to use this victory politically. Moreover, Ivan
Sousloparov, commander of the Soviet military mission in France,
representing the government and the high command, had not received
Moscow's response and the agreement of his superiors to accept the
German capitulation. However, Sousloparov takes the initiative to sign
the act. Stalin insisted that the act signed in Reims be considered only
as a preliminary to the official ceremony which would be held in Berlin
the following day. His conditions are accepted, in particular to
reassure him about the intentions of the Western allies towards him. He
had indeed feared that the capitulation of Reims was only a partial
capitulation, like that which had been accepted in Lüneburg
(north-eastern Germany) and in Italy, and that this would be the
occasion for a reversal of alliance (the West and Germany) to his
detriment.
On the other hand, Eisenhower had refused to
participate in the signing of the surrender of Reims, because there was
no German military authority of his rank, namely Marshal Keitel.
Finally, France was kept out of the preparations for the act of
capitulation. French General François Sevez, deputy to General Juin,
Chief of Staff of the French Army, only signed it as a simple witness;
moreover, he was only summoned in extremis. General de Lattre had been
officially appointed.
We therefore feel that the act of Reims,
very short, carries a certain haste: it is a question of putting an end
to the fighting. The draft capitulation drawn up by the jurists of the
European Advisory Commission was not used. In addition, a new signature
is necessary to satisfy the interests of different allied countries.
Everything therefore came together so that May 8, 1945 was
officially retained as the official date of the capitulation of Berlin
and not May 7, 1945. The surrender of Reims then fell into a certain
oblivion.
A ground floor room presents a film with period images, which gives
the historical context, the actors of the signature. The film is
available in French, German, English and Russian
Another room
presents costumes and information on the units present in Reims (FFI,
English airmen, German airmen and a few minor objects).
A third
room features members of the Allied General Staff, with an exhibition of
medals and newspapers from May 8, 1945.
And finally the war room,
presented as it was at the time, with the maps of the operations of May
7, 1945 and photographs of the actors of this memorable day.